Archive | Commentary

Sunday afternoon, October 5th, 2008, a moment at the height of a global credit crisis, the like of which has not been seen by anyone under the age of eighty.  The time will come when calm has returned, and when we at Monthly Review will point to a record over the last several years of […]

In recent weeks there have been numerous press reports and articles indicating that Argentina is facing serious economic problems that could lead to a default on its sovereign debt.  Some of these analyses compare Argentina’s current situation to that of 2001, when the government of Argentina did actually default.1 It is not only journalists and […]

The Senate approved a $700 billion Wall Street bailout on 1 October 2008.  The House voted for it on 3 October.  Senator Bernie Sanders voted against the bill.  Sanders proposed a five-year, 10 percent surtax on families with incomes of more than $1 million year and individuals earning over $500,00 to raise $300 billion to […]

In the amazing series of elections in South America in the last five years, the most radical results were in Bolivia, with the election of Evo Morales as President.  It is not because Morales stood on the most radical platform.  It was rather that, in this country in which the majority of the population are […]

Flying into New York Tuesday, I had the same feeling I had when I arrived in Beirut two years ago, at the height of the Israeli bombing of that city — that of entering a war zone. The immigration agent, upon learning I taught political economy, commented, “Well, I guess you folks will now be […]

My father, CAPITAL, who are on earth, Almighty God, who changest the course of rivers, tunnelest mountains, separatest contiguous shores, and meltest into one distant nations.  Creator of Merchandise, and Source of Life, oh, Thou, who rulest Kings and subjects, laborers and employers, may Thy Kingdom be for evermore on earth.  Give us plentiful purchasers […]

  Play now: Download: mp3 file Cf: “Bridge Loan to Nowhere,” The Nation (22 September 2008) This interview was broadcast on the “Media Matters with Bob McChesney” program (AM580) on 28 September 2008. | | Print

Bavaria, Germany’s largest state, borders on Austria: both have countless Alpine peaks, lots of men in lederhosen, and many right-wing Roman Catholic traditions.  Both had elections on Sunday.  Before nightfall many an otherwise happy yodeler showed tightly compressed lips and a grim look. In Austria the main parties, the conservative Austrian People’s Party and the […]

This paper was presented at the Alexandre de Gusmão Foundation and the International Relations Research Institute’s (IPRI) “Seminar on the United States” hosted by the Itamaraty Palace (Brazilian Foreign Ministry) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on September 29, 2008. Introduction The United States appears to be embarking on a transition on two major fronts: its […]

Friends, Everyone said the bill would pass.  The masters of the universe were already making celebratory dinner reservations at Manhattan’s finest restaurants.  Personal shoppers in Dallas and Atlanta were dispatched to do the early Christmas gifting.  Mad Men of Chicago and Miami were popping corks and toasting each other long before the morning latte run. […]

Now that all five big investment banks — Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — have disappeared or morphed into regular banks, a question arises. Is this bailout still necessary? The point of the bailout is to buy assets that are illiquid but not worthless.  But regular banks hold assets […]

Instead of giving a couple trillion dollars to the financial institutions, how about instituting a financial holiday — something like what FDR did — and using the trillions of dollars to create infrastructure and affordable housing? We could also raise some more money by ending the wars and cutting back military spending. Some of the […]

  Seeing how the Democrats seem incapable of figuring out the boondoggle Bernake and Paulson are in the process of engineering, I thought I might outline a modest proposal for a fair resolution to the present financial crisis. Buy two trillion dollar toxic sub-prime at 40 cents on the dollar; disaggregate, repackage and sell back […]

Norman Finkelstein is one of the world’s most outspoken and tenacious scholars on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and a fierce critic of the way Israel’s supporters try to wield the memory of anti-Semitism as a baton to beat up on those who criticize the country’s well-documented atrocities. Author of Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism […]

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni eked out the narrowest of victories in the primary elections for the leadership of the Kadima party over her principal rival, über-hawk Minister of Transport Shaul Mofaz.  Livni won by 431 votes, or 1.1% of the 39,331 ballots cast.  Only a little more than half the eligible members of Kadima turned […]

The political conflict over the Bush administration’s plan for a bailout of the banks, brought about both by differences with the Democrats and even more intensely with rightwing Republicans, makes it highly unlikely that Congress will be able to pass a bailout plan that can stabilize the financial situation along the lines that Secretary of […]

  Ten years ago this month I was new doctor, an intern doing primary care.  It was a joy that fall to begin at an outstanding clinic in a rural village where I would learn to see both adults and children over the next 3 years. My first week at the clinic, an elderly patient, […]

My name is Dan, and I’m a Republican.  Though it’s been almost eight years since I voted GOP, the shame and regret haunt me daily.  Just the sight of ‘W’ mugging for the cameras on the evening news is enough to fill me with despair. It all started innocently enough.  I tried my first shot […]

Herbert Langer, The Thirty Years’ War, Trans.C. S. V. Salt, Blandford Press, 1980 The seventeenth century was ruled by an aristocratic caste that no longer exists, save in the minds of the credulous and easily-deceived.   It was an imaginary caste of devils, angels, and other powers now consigned to oblivion.  For peasant and prelate, soldier […]

Justice for our sister Marcella Sali Grace! Brother and sisters, Our hearts are full of sadness and rage because our sister Sali was brutally raped and murdered 20 minutes from San Jose del Pacifico, and up to now the Oaxacan Attorney General’s Office, as is its custom, is not doing anything despite the fact that […]